Master Picture Index

Follow the links below or in the "Navigation" panel to see the various picture thumbnails. Click on a thumbnail to see a larger image.

A Day at CHF

2007-Apr-22
Now that the weather has finally turned nice everyone shows up at the barn for some riding. Here are some shots from around Country Hill Farm on a typical, warm, sunny weekend.

Grandview Horse Trail

2007-Apr-21
Some horses and people from our barn went to Grandview for a horse trail.

CARD dressage clinic

2007-February-11
A fund raising dressage clinic held by the Community Association for Riding for the Disabled.

Riding Lesson

2006-September-13
Some of the girls getting a lesson at Paige's.

Knowleton Ridge Test Ride

2006-September-10
One of the horses we know rides quite well at home but everything goes differently at shows. So to practice they trailered him out to a different location for a test ride. We tagged along to watch.

Caledonia Flyball Tournament

2006-June-25
Positive Pups hosted a flyball tournament at the Fair Grounds in Caledonia. The weather was perfect and the weekend went well. Thanks guys!

Flyball Tournament - Caledonia

2006 June 11
Instant Replay hosted a flyball tournament at the fair grounds in Caledonia. The weather, although a bit cool in the mornings, was absoutely perfect. The tournament ran very smoothly thanks to having two sets of lanes but not pre-assigning races to either set of lanes. When one race finishes the next race number uses that set of lanes. This way if a race takes longer than expected to run, it doesn't hold up races behind it, and you don't end up at the end of the day with one set of lanes finishing and the other set of lanes taking another 45 minutes to finish its day. I hope more tournament organizers adopt this format.

It was a very special weekend for us because it was the first weekend our dog, Twist, actually ran in a real race. Prior to this weekend all she had ever done was to run in the warmups. At a previous tournament in Brampton she was able to race when the other team didn't show up. This weekend in Caledonia marked her first weekend racing head-to-head against dogs who were unfamiliar to her (something that had previously caused her a great deal of angst) during an actual tournament. We believe she even ran enough times to attain her first title: "Flyball Dog" from NAFA.

Flyball Tournament

2006-May-07
Cool Runnnings flyball team hosted a NAFA flyball tournament in Cookstown, these are my pictures from day 2.

Flyball Tournament

2006-May-06
Cool Runnnings flyball team hosted a NAFA flyball tournament in Cookstown.

Country Hill Farm

2006-Apr-14
Horse riding/jumping lesson at Country Hill Farm.

Country Hill Farms

2006-Jan-08
Miscellaneous pictures from around the farm on a beautiful, sunny, winter afternoon.

After First Snow

2005-Nov-25
A couple quick pics of my street after Toronto's first big snow storm of this season.

The Royal Winter Fair

2005-11-05
My pictures from our trip to The Royal Winter Fair.

Schooling Show

2005-Oct-22
Belleview Farm held a dressage schooling show which a couple of riders from the barn where we ride participated in.

Twist on the Beach

2005-Oct-10
Here are some shots of Twist frolicking on a beach on Rankin Lake (south of Parry Sound Ontario).

Parry Sound Fall Scenery

2005-Oct-10
As is normal, the most beautiful Fall scenery and colours were to be found around the Parry Sound area of Ontario. Here are some pictures from around Rankin Lake and Horseshoe Lake.

Twist in the Fall

2005-Oct-08
The Fall season has arrived in the Ontario mid to north and the Fall scenery is beautiful. Here is a collection of pictures taken of Twist as we stopped at picnic areas along a number of Ontario highways including the 401, Hwy 17, and Hwy 69.

Tournament of Champions

2005-Sep-24
The Tournament of Champions is an equestrian event that takes place at the Caledon Equestrian Park in Palgrave. The events started on Thrusday and continue until tomorrow. In a perfect world we would get to go to the show all day every day, but things being as they are we were only able to go for half a day today.

There were 2 hunter rings, 1 jumper ring, a dressage/exhibition ring, and the grand prix ring. I took pictures of several hunters and of a demonstration flyball event in the dressage ring. In the grand prix ring I took pictures of a senior jumper event, Frank Grelo giving a demonstration of classical dressage, and of the AMJ Campbell Van Lines speed challenge.

CIAS - best

2005-Sep-03
The Canadian International Air Show (CIAS) in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) and Ontario Place. It had been years since I've attended an air show, in fact I probably wasn't even a teenager. It seems like every year there's one reason or another why I'm doing different things the Labour Day long weekend. I was quite happy to finally make it back.

I took literally hundreds of pictures, some better than others. So instead of presenting them all together in one large lump I decided to break them into groups, one for each performance.

This folder contains what I feel are the best pictures of the day. These pictures are considered the best either because I feel they're good shots or because the manoeuvre being photographed was quite impressive. None of these pictures have been cropped or edited in any way (although I'm sure that would make some of them even better).

CIAS - misc

2005-Sep-03
Here is a picture of the fire boat in the middle of the harbour which acts as a reference for centre stage for the pilots.

CIAS - T6 Texan II

2005-Sep-03
I got to the air show a tad late because I forgot to factor in some time for those enormously long parking lot line-ups. This was the first plane I was able to see of which I took pictures. Where I was located was a bit too far east of centre stage so there were no speakers to hear the show. After this act I moved a bit further west to be closer to the main-stage action.

CIAS - T6 Texan Heritage Flight

2005-Sep-03
The organizers of this year's show were big on heritage and veterans. One of the things they liked to do was to show a plane, show what replaced it, then show the two together. Had I made it earlier to the show I would have seen the older T6 Texan perform; here we see the two of them doing a fly-by together.

CIAS - MiG 17

2005-Sep-03
Next up was a display of the capabilities of the Russian MiG 17. The pilot gave us a very good look at this plane's afterburner as well as its manoeuvrability.

CIAS - Julie Clark T-34

2005-Sep-03
Next up was a very impressive pilot: Julie Clark. Ms Clark was a captain for Northwest Airlines for over 27 years prior to her retirement. What makes her demonstration all the more impressive is the fact that this aircraft she's flying was not designed for acrobatics; in fact just the opposite, it was designed for stable flight. According to the announcer the tricks she is doing in this aircraft are all the more complicated and difficult due to this fact.

Ms Clark puts on quite a performance and shows a lot of showmanship by flying a Canadian flag out her cockpit on her final pass.

CIAS - Chuck Lischer F-260

2005-Sep-03
Next up was Chuck Lischer in a plane designed for acrobatics: the F-260. He put on an impressive performance of all the spins, rolls, hammer heads, and all the other things one would expect at a great air show.

One thing Mr Lischer did quite a few times was to dive towards the water and skim the bottom of his curve just a dozen or so feet from the surface. It was great to have him zoom by so close!

CIAS - B52

2005-Sep-03
Not much to say here but: it's HUGE! The B52 Stratofortress has been apart of the USAF for decades.

CIAS - F18

2005-Sep-03
One of my favourites the F-18. I was hoping the show would feature one of the Canadian CF-18s but unfortunately not. Pictured here is one of the USAF's F-18s from the Marines. While (C)F-18s can often be quite colourfully painted this one was quite plain.

The pilot did a great job of flying in slow, close, and low so we could all get a good look at it. Nothing sillier at an airshow than a fighter jet going 60% of its top speed on every pass past the audience.

CIAS - Canadian Air Cadets

2005-Sep-03
Next up was a flyby of the Canadian Air Cadet Schweizer 2-33A Glider. I was hoping that they were doing low flyby now, have another act go one while the glider gained altitude, then have a demonstration of the glider, but that wasn't the case. They simply flew by once and then went back to the airport. An Air Cadet was at the controls of the glider.

CIAS - Bellanca CH300

2005-Sep-03
Time for another quick flyby. This time it was a replica of a the first plane to fly the Pacific Ocean non-stop.

Maybe its a sign that I'm getting older or something, but as a kid I can remember lots of airshows that were filled with (what felt like) hours and hours of lots of boring stuff: boring planes flying around and around in simple circles. I have to give the organizers credit for doing a great job at keeping the pace of this airshow moving very well, but maybe a turn or two and a second pass wouldn't have been too bad...

The pilot did a great job of flying nice and close to give us all a great view of this replica aircraft.

CIAS - CC130 Hercules

2005-Sep-03
It's not unusual for the lineup of an airshow to change, sometimes things happen and planes the organizers were hoping to be available suddenly aren't available for demonstration. This happens especially with military aircraft. This appears to be what happened in this case. The magazine programme shows no mention of the Hercules being in this year's lineup; yet, there it was.

This aircraft was from CFB Trenton and the crew did a very impressive simulated water search and rescue operation. They flew over and dropped some air indicators, then on the next pass someone jumped out of the plane, parachuted down, and had swim gear on for entering the water. You can see the back ramp of the aircraft down for most passes; on the final couple of shots you can see the payload operator standing at the edge of this deck. It must be quite a view from that position! It was a great performance from an act that appeared to be a last-minute addition.

CIAS - Bombardier Q-400

2005-Sep-03
In what seemed to me a bit of a funny twist, the next act was an opportunity for Bombardier to show off its successor to the "Dash" line of passenger aircraft. To me it seemed funny because it was like having a commercial in the middle of watching some sporting event.

This plane was quite remarkably quiet and the pilot was great at coming in really close and showing off many different angles of this aircraft.

CIAS - P51 Mustang

2005-Sep-03
A total classic! What a fabulous job this pilot did! He did such a fantastic job of flying low, slow, and close to the crowd it would have been hard to not get a great shot of this plane. But not only that, on his photo flybys he would angle the plane to tip the wing nearest the audience down in just such a way that you could almost believe some of my shots were taken from the air!

CIAS - F16 Tomcat

2005-Sep-03
Next was another US Marine aircraft: the F16 Tomcat (made popular by Hollywood in the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun). I love the way the air goes all turbulent behind this machine as it twists and turns! The announcer got the crowd all riled up in anticipation of the show this pilot was going to put on... and then after 2-3 passes announced that something had happened in the plane and the rest of this act was cancelled. It was nothing major, the plane still flew (and as you'll see in a moment even participated in the next act which was another Heritage flyby) but obviously some warning light of some sort had gone off causing the pilot to abort this "mission". Oh well, I guess I can always go out and rent the movie...

CIAS - USAF Heritage Flight

2005-Sep-03
It was time for another tip of the hat to the past with another Heritage Flight. This time the two planes were the F-16 Tomcat and the P-51 Mustang. It was funny seeing these two planes flying together - in so many ways: what a contrast!

CIAS - Rick Volker SU26

2005-Sep-03
Time for another daring death-defying prop stunt act! This guy was far and away the best act of the day. The things he was doing in this 400 HP prop plane were jaw-dropping! At one point he was flying his plane sideways through the air such that the side of the airplane itself (the fuselage) was the lifting surface! A still photograph camera does not do this man's act justice! Maybe if I could string a couple of them together to form an animated sequence... In some of the pictures you might be able to make out the direction of the smoke, in this way you might get an idea for which way the plane would be travelling were he just flying straight.

According to the announcer Mr Volker does heavy weight training every day in order to fly this act, and it's no wonder: the announcer said that for some of these stunts he subjects himself to more G forces than the F-16 pilot would have experienced during his manoeuvres! Is my memory playing tricks on me or did I not hear the announcer saying that some of those stunts were exerting 10 G's of force on the pilot?! I'm not an aviation expert but I know that fighter jet pilots wear top of the line pressurized suits, I wonder what equipment would be available to Mr Volker?

Apparently this aircraft is from some other part of the world were all propeller aircraft have engines that rotate the propeller in the opposite direction than propellers would rotate on North American aircraft. Because of this, pilots hoping to make the transition need to spend a good year or more getting used to having the aircraft react in the opposite way than what would normally be anticipated.

Unfortunately Mr Volker liked to perform his act a safe distance from the crowd, so most of these shots are of mostly cloud with a little smudge of airplane somewhere. Oh well, nothing wrong with being safe.

CIAS - CP-140 Aurora

2005-Sep-03
Time for another Canadian Military aircraft, this time the C-140 Aurora. This aircraft has a big ugly probe sticking out of its butt which it uses as an aerial for reconnaissance and (specifically in the Aurora's case) searching for submarines.

CIAS - F-104 Starfighter

2005-Sep-03
This was a rather silly act: one superfast fighter jet zooming in at very high speeds for a couple passes and that was it. In fact he'd zoom past so fast it would take him a good 5-10 minutes to get turned around for his next pass. I'm sure it was probably exhilarating for the pilot... as for us on the ground...

CIAS - CAF Snowbirds

2005-Sep-03
The final (and unquestionably the most uplifting) act of the day were the 9 CAF Snowbirds in their Canadair CT-114 Tutor jets. I was very happy to see them perform since their status was iffy: a week or two previous to this show they had lost a plane (but fortunately not a pilot) during some take-off mishap. I had forgotten to listen to the radio to find out if they were going to be performing so for me I didn't know right up until the last moment.

What could I possibly say that hasn't already been said? They are so spectacular! Why aren't these guys on Canadian coinage/bills or some other Canadian icon? It is so amazing to see this many planes flying so tightly together! Not only that, they put on a great show and do a fabulous job of getting close to the audience; there are many good opportunities to see these aircraft up close. What else is there to say but: enjoy!

The Collingwood Festival

2005-Aug-14
Once again we made our annual pilgrimage up to Collingwood for the fabulous horse show the Hayes family runs up there. The main event started off with a lead-line class, then one of the competetors sang the Canadian National Anthem, followed by the Grand Prix Kuboto Cup Series event. The Grand Prix riders pictured in this event competed for a $60,000 CAD prize. This event is a World Cup Qualifier and part of the Jump Canada series. All the big names come out to compete at this event.

We woke up early to the sound of rain, in fact it rained for most of the morning. We were seriously considering not driving up but I called and found out that they would only cancel in the event of lightning. Since it only called for rain decided to go. I'm so very glad we did! As you can see, by the time we got there not only had the rain stopped but the sun had come out, making for a perfect summer day.

Dollar Gas in Toronto

2005-Aug-13
Well, it finally happened. Today was the first day that gas hit (and surpassed) the $1/litre mark in Toronto. Oddly enough, the day before it was 93 cents and the day after it was also 93 cents, but for one day at the start of a summer weekend it mysteriously spiked up over a dollar. How do you spell gouge again?

Country Superstar, Finals

2005-Jun-17
So it all comes down to this... the finals for Country Superstar 3! We were quite pleased with the results.

Chip Giving Birth

2005-May-29
One of the horses (Chocolate Chip a.k.a "Chip") at the barn where we ride (Country Hill Farms) gave birth while we were there. I quickly grabbed my camera and joined the group of on-lookers. Unfortunately I missed the actual birth, but I got there just after the baby had come out. This sequence of almost 300 photos journals the baby's first moments out of the womb: from escaping the sack, its first nuzzle with its mother, standing up, losing its umbilical cord, suckling, and meeting the rest of the herd.

Bea and Baby

2005-May-29
One of the horses (Bea) at the barn where we ride (Country Hill Farms) had a baby earlier this Spring. Here are a couple shots of mother and baby.

Moxy For Sale

2005-May-22
One of the horses (Moxy) at the barn where we ride (Country Hill Farms) is for sale. Trish warmed the horse up and then the gentleman who came to look at him had a ride.

Country Superstar

2005-Apr-29
Another week, another Country Superstar... enjoy!

Country Superstar

2005-Apr-22
Our friend is still in the running! Here are some pictures of her, and of the other competitors, performing on-stage.

(some band)

2005-Apr-14
I was at The 360 to hear Crush Luther play. They were the second band to go on so I snapped some shots of the first band.

Crush Luther

2005-Apr-14
It turns out that this guy I've known since he was 8 is now in a rock/pop band called Crush Luther. I went out to see them perform at Toronto's "The 360" in the Queen West and Spadina area (across the street from Steve's Music Store).

Country Superstar

2005-Apr-01
A good friend of ours was competing in a local vocal competition to pick the next Country-Music Superstar. She sings phenomenally well, and I'm not just saying that because she's a friend of ours. I don't mean to insult her, but I was genuinely shocked at how beautiful her voice is!

Global Divas

2005-Mar-31
Scotiabank Group presented a concert called "Global Divas" that was hosted by CBC Radio One: "An International Celebration of Woman and Song, benefiting St. Stephen's Community House" held at Kool Haus which is in the Lower Jarvis and Queen's Quay area. It was a great concert!

The first act was "Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana". That group then stayed on for the remainder of the concert as backup for the other performers. The lineup consisted of: Jane Bunnett (Toronto), Nidia Moya (Havana Cuba), Ndidi Onukwulu (British Columbia) with Madagascar Slim, Laura Ocampo (Argentina), Jorane (Quebec), and finishing off with Dione Taylor (Regina).

Big Storm

2005-Mar-02
Pictures from after a big snow storm in Toronto (2 days of snow). Twist isn't worried, she's ready for the snow!

Flyball Competition

2005-Feb-13
Day 2 of flyball competition in Richmond Hill.

Flyball Competition

2005-Feb-12
Day 1 of a flyball competition in Richmond Hill.

Tremblant

2005-Feb-06
We took a vacation to Mont Tremblant in Quebec. Highlights include: an aerial tour of the area, hiking, pictures of the village, snowmobiling, and a drive through Omega Park (a free-range nature preserve). It rained the day we planned to go skiing, I've skied often enough in the rain, I didn't feel like getting wet this time.

Some of the pictures might appear to be out of sequence, this is due to the fact that I had two cameras which have different numbering schemes for the images.

Flyball

2005-Jan-16
Twist and her friends at flyball practice.

Obedience

2005-Jan-15
Pictures of some of Twist's friends at her advanced obedience class put on by Canine Consulting and Training Services (CCTS) held at the Beaches Community Centre.

Dog Park

2005-Jan-15
Pictures from a local canine hang-out.

Ice Storm

2004-Dec-24
The night of a large freezing rain storm in Toronto, the tree in our backyard was glowing with moonlight.

Surprise

2004-Nov-21
We held a surprise birthday party for Vanessa at Whistler's, Broadview and Mortimer.

The Royal Winter Fair

2004-Nov-11
Pictures from our annual outing to the Royal Winter Fair. This set of pictures includes pictures of the following events: 6-horse hitch, 4-horse carriage racing derby (very exciting), world cup dressage (freestyle), and a new international jumping event where they line 4 jumps in a row and the horses jump them. If they jump clear, the jumps are raised and they go again. By the end, some of the jumps were level with the eyes of some of the horses!

Muzzel Velocity

2004-Nov-08
A flyball practice.

Skydive Toronto

2004-Nov-07
Another day at a skydiving facility.

Update: Cambell and I took the solo skydive course the day before these pictures were taken but were unable to dive due to the winds being too strong; that's why we came back again on this day hoping we could dive, but again the winds were too strong.

Our payload tickets were good for a year and we finally returned and each did a solo static-line jump from 4000 feet on Saturday October 1st, 2005 (but they made a mistake on my certificate and wrote September 1st). It was really awesome, I highly recommend it. Everyone describes skydiving as a big rush but I found it was the opposite. In my opinion I found it very calming and relaxing. It was such an experience to be floating along all alone, looking down to see birds flying thousands of feet below me. In some bizarre inexplicable way it almost seemed natural (maybe that's because I had visualized it so often in my head). I hope to go again sometime.

Skydive Toronto

2004-Nov-06
A day at a local skydiiving faciility.

Community Day

2004-Oct-17
A counseller from Scarborough held a community day which included a fire truck, a camel, wagon rides, and an agility demonstration from Zippity Do Dogs.

Fall Colours

2004-Oct-10
Pictures of the Fall colours from around Parry Sound and Harris River picnic area.

Lindsay

2004-Oct-03
Going for a hike with Twist at a park in Lindsay.

Mutt and Strut

2004-Sept-26
In Richmond Hill the SPCA held an event called Mutt and Strut. Zippity Do Dogs was asked to come demonstrate canine agility.

Country Hill Farm

2004-Sept-26
Pictures from around the farm.

Pottery Show

2004-Sept-25
The studio where we had done our pottery class holds a show and exhibition.

North Bay

2004-Sept-18
A nice assortment of pictures including evening/night star pictures plus scenery pictures and some flowers.

Twist

2004-09-18
Pictures of Twist.

Cabbagetown Festival

2004-Sept-12
Day 2 of the Cabbagetown Festival.

Cabbagetown Festival

2004-Sept-11
Zippity Do Dogs had been invited to do a demonstration at the annual Cabbagetown Festival. Here are some pictures from day 1 of the event.

Our Friends' Wedding

2004-Aug-21
Wedding pictures of very good friends of ours.

Cyclon 2004 (Barrie)

2004-Aug-02
This year's Cyclon broke new ground by going North of the city to be held in Barrie.

Barrie is a vibrant city with lots to offer. The facilities at Georgian College were top-rate, all weekend long there was an enormous festival going on along the waterfront, and on Sunday we took a short bus ride down to the docks for a wonderful dinner/evening crusing around Lake Simcoe.

It rained for the start of rides on Saturday, but other than that we had sunshine the rest of the weekend. The terrain around Barrie has more rolling hills, which gave everyone's legs a good workout.

Zippity Do Dogs

2004-July-07
Dog agility practice.

Forks of the Credit

2004-July-03
Hiking at The Forks of the Credit.

Canadian Driving Classic

2004-July-01
I heard about this one on the radio. A huge event involving each and every sort of horse-drawn cart of all types and sizes. This event had comepetetors from all over North America.

Canada Day

2004-July-01
Fireworks and festivities at Stan Wadlow Park in celebration of Canada Day.

Woofstock

2004-June-05
Happening in the Distillery District of Toronto was a huge outdoor event geared towards pets called Woofstock.

Toronto

2004-June-05
Pictures around Toronto.

St. Lawrence Market

2004-June-05
I love the St. Lawrence Market; if you live in Toronto, or are visiting Toronto, you have to stop in some Saturday morning. It is the best place I know of to buy meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, eggs, breads, desserts, fish, cheese, mustard, or just to stop in for lunch.

Cyclon Sign-up Night

2004-June-04
Sign-up night was held at the Bow and Arrow Pub, Yonge and Davisville. Due to the fact Cyclon 2004 was accepting a very limited number of registrants, many people signed up early, making this year's sign-up night a rather quiet event.

Dog Obedience

2004-May-29
Advanced dog obedience class held by CCTS at the Beaches Recreation Centre.

Wedding Invite

2004-May-22
I was invited to a wedding, so I brought my camera and snapped some shots. I like being invited to weddings. :-)

Check out the "professional" photographer who, right in the middle of the most crucial parts of the wedding, pops up and stands 3 feet from the ceremony, blocking everyone else's view in the chappel!

This wedding took place at a gorgeous property on the grounds of Sunnybrook Hospital. I had no idea this mansion was down there.

Toronto Night Skyline

2004-May-22
Pictures of the Toronto skyline from Humber Bay Park taken at night.

BSDCan 2004

2004-May-14
Pictures from the first ever BSDCan held in Ottawa.

Humber Bay Park

2004-May-11
Pictures of the Toronto skyline from Humber Bay Park.

Twist at Humber Bay

2004-May-11
Shots of Twist at Toronto's Humber Bay Park.

Rockwood

2004-May-01
Pictures from a little park in the heart of Rockwood, ON.

Golden Woods

2004-May-01
Pictures from Golden Woods farm.

Harris River

2004-Apr-11
Another stop at Harris River (on the way home).

Harris River

2004-Apr-10
A stop at the old favourite.

Twist

2004-Mar-06
Laying around the house.

Toronto Snow

2004-Feb-01
Toronto, after a big snow storm.

Terrawoods Winter Weekend

2004-Jan-17
A winter weekend at Terrawoods. Great shots of Twist swimming through the deep snow!

Winter Twist

2004-Jan-15
Here is what Twist looks like all decked out for winter -- boots and coat.

Boots for Twist

2004-Jan-10
Twist usually walks funny in the winter, inevitably she'll walk and pick up one of her back feet. Which one she picks up will change from day to day. We're not sure if it's a cold-related issue or a salt-related issue, but in any case walking in winter bothers her. We decided to fix this problem by buying her a set of boots to wear in the winter. This was her first day with them.

Christmas in the Rockies

2003-Dec-25
We decided to take a trip to the Rockies for our Christmas holidays. We flew in to and out of Calgary, rented a car, and drove through Banff, into British Columbia, and on to the Lake Shuswap area of the B.C. interior.

While there we enjoyed cross-country skiing at Silver Star resort, hiking just outside of Revelstoke, downhill skiing at Sun Peaks resort, going for a trailride, as well as hiking numerous other times on trails we'd find as we drove around.

On the way back to Calgary we spent the night in Canmore, making it that much easier to catch our flight back the next day.

The Royal Winter Fair

2003-Nov-15
More pictures from The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

The Royal Winter Fair

2003-Nov-12
Pictures from The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Schutzhund Dog Trial

2003-Oct-25
Pictures from a Schutzhund (police dog) dog trail which took place in Scarborough. The judge was an internationally famous trainer and polic officer from Vancouver.

Highway 124

2003-Oct-14
Fall pictures from along Highway 124.

Thanksgiving in North Bay

2003-Oct-13
Fall pictures near North Bay.

Harris River

2003-Oct-12
A stop along the highway for a hike at the Harris River picnic area.

Parry Sound Sunrise

2003-Oct-08
Pictures of a gorgeous, Muskoka, Fall sunrise.

Orangeville Farm Tour

2003-Sept-27
We were listening to the radio one day when they advertised an Orangeville Farm Tour, an opportunity to take a tour of numerous different farms around the Orangeville area. We went, and it was very interesting. There were many livestock and agricultural farms on the tour as well as a horse farm and an art studio to end the tour.

Creemore Springs

2003-Sept-27
We were driving around when we came across signs for the Creemore Brewery so we stopped in for a peek.

Parry Sound Picnic

2003-Aug-30
Lots of pictures from this year's festivities. Games for the young, games for the not-so-young, entertainment, and a feast.

Volunteer BBQ

2003-08-23
As a "thank you" to all the people who volunteer for Cyclon, it is traditional for the Cyclon Director to hold a BBQ.

Pottery

2003-Aug-07
We took a pottery class, here are some pictures of the studio.

Cyclon 2003 (Brock)

2003-Aug-03
We're back at Brock for this year's Cyclon (in the Niagara region).

Horses in Lavender

2003-July-27
On our drive home from OLS we came upon this fantastic lavender field with horses. One of those moments we just couldn't pass up.

Ottawa and OLS

2003-July-23
Back in Ottawa for OLS. Here are a bunch of pictures, mostly of Ottawa.

Brock

2003-July-20
Pictures from a stroll through a conservation area outside of Brock.

Canada Day in Toronto

2003-July-01
Some shots from the festivities in Jimmy Simpson Park (along Queen East).

New Landscaping in Parry Sound

2003-June-14
Some shots after some Spring landscaping improvements.

Cyclon Sign-Up Night

2003-June-12
Cyclon 2003 Sign-Up night at the Bow and Arrow pub, Yonge and Davisville.

Friends' Wedding

2003-May-23
A friend of ours got married in London (Ontario), here are a bunch of pictures from the ceremony, the reception afterwards, as well as the gift opening the day after.

Moose in Algonquin Park

2003-Apr-19
After dinner at "Three Guys and a Stove" restaurant in Huntsville, we drove over to Algonquin Park (South Entrance) for some Spring moose spotting. It didn't take us long to find quite a few!

Early Morning in Taylor Creek Park

2003-Jan-30
Winter in the heart of Toronto -- pictures of Taylor Creek Park on an early Winter morning.

New Family Member

2003-Jan-13
We adopted this beautiful dog from the Toronto Humane Society. We had been in the day before to look at what they had available, she was the only one who wasn't either cowering in the corner or insanely barking its head off. We named her Twist because of the way she loves to twist and turn as you try to pet her. She had been on the discount rack because she had two smashed hips -- one impacted, one broken -- both of which weren't attended to and had simply healed whichever way the bones were positioned. She is a Border Collie Lab cross: very smart, very happy, loves to be given a task, and very obedient.

The Royal Winter Fair

2002-Nov-17
Horse shows, displays, horse seminars, dog show, etc...

Fall Scenery

2002-Oct-12
Fall pictures of the beautiful Ontario country-side driving from Parry Sound to North Bay. We wandered off the beaten track and ended up going through Magnetewan and Burk's Falls. Along the way we came across this really bizarre place where some local artist had created his own castle as well as huge pieces of strange art in several surrounding fields.

Tournament of Champions

2002-Sept-28
Tournament of Champions at the York Equestrian Centre (Newmarket) featuring the Eukanuba Super Dogs, Canadian Raptor Conservancy, and the Audi Challenge.

North Bay

2002-Sept-07
Random pictures near North Bay.

Parry Sound Picnic

2002-Aug-31
Highlights from the annual Labour Day Weekend picnic near Parry Sound.

Awenda Provincial Park

2002-Aug-30
We packed the car and went for a day hike in Awenda Provincial Park, just outside of Penetanguishine.

Collingwood Horse Show

2002-Aug-15
Pictures from the 2002 Collingwood Horse Show.

TBN Annual Picnic

2002-Aug-11
The Toronto Bicycling Network's annual TBN picnic at Too-Good Pond in Markham. It was a very nice day for the ride. There was quite a stretch of rough road just before getting to lunch but otherwise it was a very nice ride.

Cyclon 2002 (Brock)

2002-Aug-02
TBN's annual weekend-long cycling trip was held in Brock. Anne and Dennis did a wonderful job organizing the event.

Toronto

2002-July-01
Some random pictures from around Toronto. If you think the first shot is an accidental blank shot of the sky, it's not: on a normal day you should be able to see the Toronto skyline, but because of the horrendous smog we were experiencing you could barely see anything. The picture might look foggy or cloudy, but in fact there isn't a single precipitation cloud in the sky!

Cycling in Gatineau

2002-June-29
While we were in Ottawa we met up with some fellow cyclists who we knew from the Niagara Freewheelers Cycling Club. On Sunday mornings during the summer, they close the roads in Gatineau Park to vehicles and only allow recreational use of the roads and trails. We sure did a lot of climbing! At one point we stopped climbing and cycled laterally over to Meech Lake. Then we cycled back and continued on up. We had quite a view. The ride down was quite nice, although comparatively short.

Ottawa

2002-June-26
Some pictures of around Ottawa, taken while we were in town attending the Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS).

Drive to Ottawa

2002-June-25
We had an absolutely gorgeous drive to Ottawa to attend the Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS). It was my first time very driving Hwy 17 anywhere east of Sudbury. At one point we passed such a fantastic look-out I had to pull a U-turn to take some shots. Unfortunately we were instantly and completely swarmed with insects! If you notice black dots of smudges on the pictures you'll know what they are.

Cyclon Test Weekend

2002-June-15
Cyclon was fast coming upon us and Anne had organized a weekend for as many of the volunteers especially the tour leaders and sweeps to come out and test-ride some of the routes.

Milton Triathalon

2002-June-02
Vanessa's brother participated in the 2002 Milton Triathalon. After the race, since we had already paid $7 to enter the park, we went for a really nice hike up and around the escarpment a little bit.

Laurentian Trails

2002-May-26
Here are some pictures from our hike along the trails behind Laurentian University.

Niagara Freewheelers Extravaganza

2002-May-17
Based on how much fun last year's Extravaganza was, we signed up again for this year's cycling event put on by the Niagara Freewheelers Club. This year's event was nothing like last year's: last year we were sweating our buns off it was so hot! This year we found ourselves quite under-dressed and therefore quite cold. On the second day we have everything from sun, rain, sleet, and snow.

Spring in North Bay

2002-May-05
The flowers have started to bloom and Summer is close behind!

Spring in Parry Sound

2002-Apr-13
(yuck!)

TBN Ride

2002-Apr-07
We decided to get an early start on the cycling season by going out for an early April TBN ride. It was quite cool but we dressed well for the occation... or so we thought. The weather kept getting colder and colder. Although we were well dressed on our bodies it was quite clear we needed more accessories. We were wearing gloves, but not good enough gloves; our fingers were frozen. We were wearing our cycling shoes (because our bikes have clips) but cycling shoes are meant to help air flow well through them. Although we were wearing thick socks by the end of the ride our toes were cubes of ice. And then it started snowing. I would have taken more pictures but my camera stopped working due to the cold.

Deer by North Bay

2002-Mar-31
It was a muddy, mucky Spring weekend by North Bay. At the end of the weekend we saw some deer in a field so we stopped to take some pictures (since this is a relatively rare event). By the time we reached Port Loring we had counted (conservatively) 134 deer! Every field we passed had a couple dozen deer, cars were pulled over all along the highway.

Toronto

2002-Mar-23
Pictures from around Toronto.

Niagara on the Lake

2002-Mar-23
As volunteers part of the Cyclon 2002 committee planning this year's Cyclon event, we had been asked to design a couple of routes. We had gone out last fall to have a look around, this weekend we were back just to double-check our numbers and make sure our directions were accurate.

Toronto

2002-Feb-17
Pictures from around Toronto.

North Bay

2001-Dec-25
Here are some pictures of some lovely Christmas-y winter scenery. Brrr!

Ontario Fall Pictures

2001-Oct-07
Some really nice fall pictures from around the parts of Ontario that we enjoy such as: Parry Sound, Highway 518 between Parry Sound and Sundridge, North Bay, and returning to Parry Sound via Highways 522 and 69.

Peelie Wheelie

2001-Sept-01
We attended a TBN weekend camping trip around the Pelee area of Southern Ontario. We had a very nice trip, and the weather was good. We bought a plant at this funny place called "Collisanti's". I also bought a sweater from one of the wineries, not because I was necessarily looking for a souvenir, but because I hadn't expected the evening temperature to be so low! One night we all pitched in a cooked a meal together. Another night we went into town for a meal at a restaurant. On the second day we cycled to Pelee National Park. It was quite busy and there were a lot of flies so we didn't stay too long. Some of the people took the ferry over to the island (but not us).

Collingwood Horse Show

2001-Aug-25
Some pictures from the 2001 Collingwood Horse Show.

Cycling Vacation of Niagara

2001-Aug-07
At the end of Cyclon 2001 we participated in a post-Cyclon tour of one week cycling in the Niagara region. We stayed with a group of anglophone cyclists from Montreal in the student residences of Brock University. We had a fantastic vacation! The weather was beautiful, hot, and sunny.

Cyclon 2001 (Guelph)

2001-Aug-04
TBN's Cyclon 2001, held in Guelph. The weather was great and we did some very nice riding. We completed a 135km cycle on the second day! Other highlights include a trip to the Butterfly Conservatory and a stop at the Rail and Streetcar Museum on Guelph Line.

Toronto Centre Island

2001-June-06
We decided to go for a cycling tour of Toronto's Centre Island. I hadn't been on the island in years. The only times I have ever ever visited the island was on school outings. I was quite pleasantly surprised by just how nice the island is, especially the homes and communities.

Niagara Freewheelers Extravaganza

2001-May-19
Weekend-long cycling event based at Sir Wilfred Laurier University (in Waterloo) hosted by the Niagara Freewheelers Cycling Club. We had a fantastic weekend!